Eight Hours
by angellwings
Summary: Turns out a lot can happen in eight hours.


**A/N:** So this was originally a tumblr prompt on Ao3 and by request of the nice folks over there I expanded it. Enjoy!

* * *

Eight Hours

by angellwings

* * *

Ezekiel broke the door. That's how all of this started. Cassandra got a case in her book that mentioned a private art collection and she'd immediately come to Jake for help. Neither thought that while they were gone Ezekiel would try and see how many locations the door could access in half an hour and overload the circuits. Now they were stuck.

Jenkins assured them he could have it fixed in no less than 8 hours and had made them reservations at a local Holiday Inn. One double room for the pure economy of it. Jake had done his best not to look panicked when Jenkins had announced that over Cassie's speakerphone. He wasn't sure he succeeded. It wasn't the being alone with Cassie that terrified him. It was just the idea of being alone with Cassie that terrified him. He furrowed a brow at himself and shook his head. He wasn't making any sense.

"Well," Cassandra said as she stared at her phone as Jenkins hung up. "While we're here we should work on the case. Mr. Garrison said we could come back later since he had to rush off for a meeting. We should go back and question him some more."

Jake frowned and held back a glare. Mr. Garrison, Paul as he'd told Cassie to call him, had been entirely too friendly to Cassie for Jake's liking. He was the CEO of a company that capitalized off of STEM research and innovation but he also had the largest collection of classical landscapes in the United States. He was rich, educated, intelligent, and older. And, also, very interested in the cute red headed Librarian who could could actually keep up with Garrison's STEM babble.

"Nah," Jake said quickly with a shake of his head. "I think it can wait till we research our leads."

She gave him a confused glance. "What leads? We have none. We don't even know why we're here. I've yet to see anything magical going on here. No one's been attacked or gone missing or started acting strangely. I see no members of the Serpent Brotherhood or dragons in man suits. I'm officially at a loss as to why my book brought us here. He's the only lead we've got."

"Then maybe I should talk to him," he told her. "Alone."

"No offense, Stone, but you weren't exactly friendly in there. I don't think he'd tell you anything forthcoming," she said with a pointed look. "In fact, you spent most of our meeting pouting and glaring if I recall correctly. Maybe you let out the occasional affirmative grunt. _Maybe_."

"Cassandra, he was flirting with you," he told her with a huff.

She smirked and nodded. "I know."

"You know?" Jake asked in disbelief. She hadn't acted like she knew.

She rolled her eyes at him. "I missed out on a childhood, Stone, not young adulthood. I have _flirted_ before. I've even been on a few dates, had a boyfriend or two–well or four I guess technically. Just because I'm sick doesn't mean people can't be attracted to me, you know."

That was not what he'd been thinking. "Cassie, I wasn't thinking that." He reached up and rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Any guy who appreciates art would have to be crazy _not_ to be attracted to you."

Cassandra grinned and quirked a brow at him. "Really? Does that include you?"

"Wh-what?"

"The way you worded that was interesting, that's all. You said 'any guy who appreciates art'," she repeated with a blush before she reluctantly continued. "Let's just skip past the part where you called me art for a second to acknowledge that _you_ are a guy who appreciates art. Aren't you?"

He made the mistake of meeting her blue eyes with his own. He'd lied to everybody in his life for years but, for some reason, he'd never been able to lie to Cassandra. Couldn't even lie by omission really. He just knew his damned eyes gave him away because she smiled shyly and tucked a strand of her hair behind her ear.

She giggled softly and nodded. "Guess so." She took a deep breath and he could actually see her gathering her nerves before she continued. "Stone– _Jacob_ –were you jealous of Garrison? Maybe?"

Her eyes were unsure and she was questioning whether or not she should have even asked the question.

He cleared his throat and glanced down at the floor as he spoke. "Maybe. A little."

Silence filled the air between them until he finally looked up at her again and found her grinning knowingly at him.

"Okay, a lot," he admitted with a huff. "Can you blame me?"

"No," she said in a teasing tone. "Garrison _is_ very attractive after all. Baird would call him a silver fox. That's what she calls Harrison Ford."

Jake grimaced at her. "I did not need to know that."

She smiled slyly at him and stepped into his personal space. She kept her eyes on his crossed arms as she hesitantly placed a hand on his forearm. "Really, Jake, you've got nothing to worry about. He may be a silver fox but he'll never have an expression half as cute as your pout."

He rolled his eyes but managed to chuckle at her. "Thanks, that's very reassuring." He paused for a moment when he suddenly realized something. "Wait, was that–are you _flirting_ with me?"

She met his eyes and blushed again as she shrugged casually. "Maybe. I guess that's up to you." With that she picked up the room key off the nightstand and headed to the door. "Come on, let's at least get some work done while we're stuck here."

"What about Garrison?" Jacob asked worriedly.

"What about him?" Cassandra asked expectantly. "Just because he flirts with me doesn't mean I have to flirt back. Does it?"

The way she smiled secretively at him caused him to flash her a small grin in return. "No, it doesn't."

"Good," she told him before she reached out and grabbed his arm. "Now, let's go. We'll never hear the end of it from Jenkins if we go back to the Annex with _zero_ leads."

He wasn't entirely sure what had just happened between them but he _was_ sure that he liked it. He liked it a lot.

* * *

Turns out a lot can happen in eight hours. For example, they could reach Mr. Garrison's office and find it completely empty, furniture and all. It looked like someone had reached in and snatched everything up, even the electrical sockets were hanging from the wall by frayed wires. And they could realize almost too late that the only thing in tact in the office was a painting on display on an easel. Jake could, possibly, grab Cassie and then hold them both against the doorway as the painting started to try and suck them into the painting.

He could, just barely, catch a glimpse of Joachim Patinir painting that was causing all the chaos.

"What is happening?" Cassandra yelled as she tried to be heard above the roaring of the painting and it's powerful vortex of wind.

"Just a guess, but I think it's trying to pull us in," Jake said with a small grin.

Cassandra rolled her eyes at him. "I got that much, thanks. Can you see the painting, Mr. Art Historian?"

"Landscape with Charon Crossing the Styx by Joachim Patinir," he replied immediately. "It depicts the journey of a soul to the afterlife. One shore of the river is heaven and the other is hell. Northern Rennaissance and early Mannerist, sometime between the years 1515 and 1524."

"No chance it would send us to the pretty heavenly shore if we got sucked in is there?" She asked as she scrunched up her nose in disgust.

He chuckled despite the situation and shook his head. "I'm thinking no. I'm also thinking loverboy's already been sucked in. Given the state of this office."

"Got any ideas?" She asked as she tightened her grip on the doorframe and glanced around the office.

It could take them the rest of the eight hours to figure out what to do. It took them twenty minutes to put together that in order to save Garrison they'd have to let themselves get sucked into the painting. It took them another three hours to travel through Hades and find him. Then another two to make it back to the river's shore where they faced off against Cerberus, the rabid three headed dog that guarded Hades, which thanks to Cassandra's brilliant mind and knowledge of force ratios took a lot less time than it should have. It took them almost exactly half an hour to get the attention of Charon, the figure who ferried the soul in the painting to his ultimate destination, and convince him to give them a ride. In another half hour they figured out the only way out was to take the more treacherous path to the shores of Paradise across the River Styx. The journey to the other side looked deceptive short but they fought the current and rough waters and jagged rocks to reach it and that slowed the pace of the trip considerably. By the time they made it to the shore and found their way out of the painting it had been almost exactly eight hours since they'd spoken with Jenkins about the broken door.

The minute they escaped the painting Garrison threw a cover over it and practically shoved it into Jake's arms. Garrison, as it turned out, was far from gallant and had rarely lifted a frightened finger to help them through the whole adventure. If Cassie had been interested in him earlier Jake was confident she was now. He'd heard her muttering under her breath several times as both she and Jake had been forced to go back and collect Garrison from where ever he'd managed to cower and hide.

Cassandra's phone rang as they left Garrison's office building. She wiped a bit of soot off of her phone and her face before she answered. Her white tights were ruined, he noted as he spotted the tears and stains that covered them.

"Jenkins!" She said happily. "Any news? What? No! You've got to be kidding me." She sighed and then quickly switched the phone to speaker so Jake could listen in. "He broke the door _again_?"

"I turned my back for one second and the shifty little criminal had run off with one of the bulbs," Jenkins answered with a huff. "He's hidden himself in the Main Library. Don't worry, Mr. Carsen, Colonel Baird, and myself are working diligently to track him down. As soon as I can get that bulb back we'll bring you home. We'll call when we've got an update."

Jake gave her a confused look as Jenkins hung up. "Who ran off with a bulb?"

"One guess," Cassandra said as they reached their hotel.

"Jones," Jake said darkly. "Somebody really oughtta teach that kid a lesson."

"Oh, I think once Baird gets a hold of him he'll learn," Cassandra said with a giggle. "Or maybe Jenkins will lecture him to death."

They drew odd looks as they marched through the hotel lobby covered in burnt and ripped clothes and wet hair matted with soot.

"What are we going to do with _that_ in the meantime?" Cassie asked as she motioned to the painting they had covered tightly with a black velvet sheet.

"Lock it in the closet I guess," Jake said as they stepped into the elevator. "I have no desire to look at it any longer than I have to."

"Yeah, once you've been _in_ a painting it kind of loses its charm," Cassie said with a shudder.

Once they were forced to stop in the elevator the exhaustion hit them. They'd been up for almost a full 24 hours at this point and had literally been to hell and back. Now the adrenaline was fading and he could tell by the way Cassie swayed slightly and then leaned against the elevator wall that she would crash almost as soon as they made it to the room. He had to admit crashing didn't sound like a bad idea to him either. Although, he'd like a shower too. Not that a shower would matter if he was just going to put on his ruined clothes, he thought as he looked down at his jeans that were now nearly black with wet soot and dirt. His shirt was ripped across the right shoulder and his front pocket hung off the his button, revealing the thin t-shirt he was wearing underneath it. He couldn't see his face but he could see that his hands were covered in soot that. This would be a good time to create art with charcoal he thought to himself with a smirk.

"What are you smirking about?" Cassandra asked with a small smile.

"I was just thinking if I had some paper I could have a little fun with all this soot we're covered in," he said as he held up one of his hands.

She chuckled with heavy lidded eyes and then looked down at her own hands. "If my hands are this covered in it, I can't imagine how much of it is on my face and in my hair. I'm sure I look gross. I _feel_ gross."

"I don't know," He said as he gave her a slow once over and smirked at her. "I kinda like it. Knowing the context of it and having seen you in action today makes it sort of…"

"Hot?" She supplied with a smirk of her own. She gave him a once over of her own and then blushed. "I know exactly what you mean."

He quirked a brow at her at that and tried very hard not show how flustered he actually felt. He scratched the back of his neck absently and looked down at the elevator floor, and after a brief moment of silence they reached their floor and the doors opened. He cleared his throat and motioned for her to go first. She smiled shyly at him and nodded her thanks as she stepped out. He followed her and then fell into step next to her with the painting held to his opposite side.

"By the way," Cassie said with a small smile. "If you're still worried at all about Garrison, don't. Whatever charm he may have had was ruined by listening to him sobbing and whimpering all night long."

Jake laughed as they reached the door to their room. "I thought that might be the case." He dug the room key out of his pocket and handed it to her. "I thought I heard you muttering about him under your breath."

"I mean I understand it was Hades and he's not used to it like we are but I had to coax him out from under a table. Like a wounded animal or something," she said as she rolled her eyes and opened the door.

She let Jacob go in first with the painting and then followed him in. She shut and locked the door behind them. Jake made a beeline for the closet to hide the painting and, at the very least, get it out of his sight.

"I'm gonna clean up a bit," Cassie told him as she stepped into the bathroom and shut the door.

He shut the closet and placed a chair in front of it, just in case. He wasn't sure it would do them any good but it was always better to take precautions. He sighed and stared down at his clothes. He had nothing to change into so a shower was out. But he supposed he could throw out the flannel button up he was wearing. It was done for and covered in soot. The shirt underneath it was relatively clean still. He unbuttoned the shirt and threw it in the trashcan and then kicked off his shoes. They were still soaked all the way through from crossing the river. He was afraid to sit on the bed with his jeans covered in grime and dirt.

Cassie came out of the bathroom with her face, hands, and arms clean and her hair pulled back into a messy bun on top of her head. As his gaze traveled further down he realized she'd thrown out her ruined white tights and for the first time since he'd known her he could actually see her pale slender legs. It felt strangely intimate and reminded him of another intimate situation he'd found himself in. With an angry power grid alarm going off all around them and his hands on her bare waist. He averted his eyes from her legs quickly and noticed she'd had the same idea he had. She'd thrown away her cropped sweater that had been her top layer and now just wore a thin lacy camisole with her floral print shorts.

He tried to look away before she caught him staring but he was apparently too late. She blushed and tugged on the bottom of the camisole.

"My sweater was completely ruined," she said with a small smile and a shrug.

He nodded. "My shirt was too."

Her eyes landed on his jeans and she winced. "Your jeans don't look much better than your shirt did."

"I, um, yeah," he said awkwardly. "Not sure what to do about that one."

She bit her bottom lip and then asked hesitantly. "Are you wearing boxers?" The way her face flushed after she asked caused him to chuckle at her before he answered.

"Yes," He said with a small grin.

"Well, then take them off. We might be here a while and there's no need to be uncomfortable while we're stuck here. Besides. You'll still be more covered than me," she said as she glanced down at her camisole and shorts with a self conscious grin. "The bathroom's all yours, by the way," she said as she motioned to the open door and walked away toward one of the beds.

He nodded and then stepped into the bathroom to clean up a little himself. Cassandra had placed her boots upside down in the bathtub to dry and she'd piled the dirty towels she'd used to clean on the corner of the bathroom. He decided she was right; there was no telling how long they'd be stuck here. Jones was a professional thief, he was very good at hiding. He should at least be comfortable. He took off his jeans and attempted to rinse some of the soot and dirt out of them. He was mostly successful. The jeans could be saved. He hung them up on the shower curtain to dry and then washed off his hands, arms, and face. He stood over the tub and ran a hand through his hair to get rid of the loose soot. He'd worry about getting all of it out once he was in his own apartment and his own shower. When he exited the bathroom he felt much better.

He didn't feel as tired as he had previously either. He found Cassandra lying on her bed with her head hanging off the foot of hit, watching the television upside down as she flipped through the channels. He smirked at her.

"Does the picture look better that way?" He asked teasingly.

"No, but my head feels a little better like this," she said honeslty as she gave him a weak smile in response.

"Oh, I didn't think about—with everything you did to take down Cerberus I didn't even think about your head," he said as he mentally cursed himself for being so stupid. "Is it bad?" he asked.

She bit her bottom lip and hesitated with her answer which told him everything he needed to know before she'd even uttered a word. "Pretty bad, yeah."

He stood up and took the remote from her and turned off the television. He held out a hand expectantly to her to help her sit up and she accepted it. "Scoot over," he said gently as he approached the bed she'd claimed as hers.

"What?" She asked with a furrowed brow.

"I have an idea," he told her as he motioned for her to scoot over again. She reluctantly did as he asked and he sat down next to her and then leaned his back against the headboard. He patted his thigh and then said, "Lay your head here."

She gave him a hesitant look and he sighed impatiently.

"Just trust me, Cassie, okay?"

As soon as he'd said the words he'd regretted them. It reminded them both of the elephant in the room. That conversation they'd had ages ago about trust. The conversation he'd been meaning to have again, but had yet to work up the guts to do. For her part she said nothing but she did lay her head down in his lap as he'd asked. Which, if he were honest made him feel worse. She did trust him. And she thought he didn't trust her. He would admit that once upon a time that was the case. But a lot of things had changed since that first conversation in The Annex. _A lot of things._

He gently reached out and massaged her temples. Hopefully, it helped her. His headaches were different and few and far between but it usually helped him. Her eyes closed and he felt her relax and that was all the answer he needed.

"Better?" He asked softly.

"Yes," she said with a contented sigh. "Thank you."

They sat in comfortable silence for several minutes while Jake continued to massage Cassie's head.

"Cassandra?" Jake asked sheepishly.

"Hm?"

"We've been through a lot together since they conversation in the stacks after The Labyrinth," He said with a nervous gulp. "We've been through some pretty crazy things since then."

She placed her hands on his that were still massaging circles on her temples to stop him and then sat up to look him in the eye. "Yes. We have."

"And you always have my back," he told her as he cleared his throat.

She smiled warmly at him and nodded. "And you always have mine."

"We didn't have the best start, you and me," he said as he continued. "We both did and said some things that we maybe regret."

Her brow furrowed at him. "What do you have to regret? I'm the one that sold everyone out."

"I was the only person at The Annex who couldn't give you the benefit of the doubt. You had your reasons and they were damn good ones. I just…I'm a stubborn jackass who let my past get in the way of my present. The people in my past, they've got nothing to do with you and yet I punished you for what they put me through. That wasn't fair to you," he told her. "I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have shut you out."

"It was self preservation, Jacob," she told him softly as she leaned against the headboard next to him. "If anyone understands that it's me. Before all of this I purposely secluded myself from anyone I might care about," she admitted. "What did it matter if I was just going to be forced to leave them all anyway? And then my parents weren't…well they seemed to have the same attitude toward me. So, if anyone understands trying to save yourself the pain it's me. I get it."

"Yet another reason I should have run toward you instead of away from you," he said honestly as he focused his gaze on his hands and twiddles his thumbs nervously. "We have different specialties, Cass, but we're a lot more alike than most people think."

He felt her rest her head on his shoulder before she spoke up again. "Well, you're not running away _now_ are you?" she asked. "We can start over now."

He shook his head. "I don't want to go back and start over," he told her. "I want to move forward. Not back. I want to use what we've got now to make something better and stronger. I definitely do not want a blank slate. Our beginning makes our story interesting. We should keep it. Just like it is."

She smiled affectionately at him and chuckled. "You're such a romantic. A grumpy romantic, but still a romantic."

He laughed and met her eyes. "Art and romance tend to go hand in hand, darlin'."

She didn't comment on the endearment and, to be honest, he hadn't thought much about using it. It felt natural to him when it came to her. He placed his arms at his sides and accidentally grazed her the skin on her naked thigh. Neither he nor she had made a move to avoid it, though. She didn't jump and he didn't jerk his hand away. As close as he usually stood to her on a daily basis one would think skin to skin contact wouldn't be a big deal. But it felt like a big deal. Even through clothes it sometimes felt like a big deal. He could remember exact moments where she'd placed a hand on his shoulder or accidentally bumped his arm. Those little moments were burned into his brain. He was almost afraid to find out what would happen if the skin to skin contact continued.

Cassie reached out and placed her hand in the one of his that had grazed her thigh and then laced their fingers together. She rested her head on his shoulder again and then they both looked toward the foot of the bed where their legs rested side by side.

"Your legs are skinnier than I expected," Cassandra said suddenly in a teasing tone. "Sort of Chicken-y."

He scoffed and settled a playful glare on her head that rested on his shoulder. "I do not have chicken legs! And even if I did at least mine aren't white as a sheet. For a second I almost forgot you weren't wearing your tights."

She gasped and feigned offense as she teasingly smacked his arm. "You take that back."

"Not until you take back the chicken legs comment," he said with a grin and a pointed look.

She took her head off of his shoulder and leaned back slightly to meet his eyes, ready with a witty retort that died on her lips when she noticed how close their faces were. Her eyes darted to his lips for a moment and then her cheeks flushed when she met his eyes again. With their proximity and the pretty blush on her cheeks he was almost tempted to throw caution to the wind and kiss her senseless. He'd almost recovered and was searching for a way to move passed the moment when she bit down on her bottom lip nervously and the something in the pit of his stomach lurched and tensed.

"Oh, to hell with it," he muttered to himself before he urgently closed the distance between them and covered her lips with his own. She made a surprised sound against his lips before he felt her smile and then begin to kiss him back. She released his hand and wrapped her arms around his neck to pull him closer. The thrill of her kissing him back as eagerly as he was kissing her was causing him to feel all sorts of things. His adrenaline was rushing again just as much as it had when they were in the painting earlier that night but for very different reasons.

He had one hand cupping the side of her face and the other on the small of her back. At some point without him realizing, it had slipped under her camisole. The kisses they were exchanging were very wet and sometimes awkward but never anything less than passionate. He deliberately began to slow down the speed of their kisses after a few moments just to see how she would react. She whined against his lips and he had to resist the urge to smirk. He changed the pace to slow and intrusive kisses after that until Cassie's hands changed position. One hand slipped into his hair and the other slipped under the round color of his t-shirt. He moved from kissing her lips to kissing up her jawline, and then down along the curve of her neck. He'd just reached her collarbone when her cell phone suddenly rang.

It rang high and loud above the sounds of kissing in the room and Jake groaned as he pulled away form her.

"Really?" He asked as he glared at her phone and handed it to her. "Now?"

She laughed and smiled at him with red swollen lips and disheveled hair before she glanced down at the screen. "It's Jenkins."

"Of course it is," He said with a huff.

She placed a lingering kiss on his lips one last time. "Maybe he's calling to tell us they still haven't found Jones."

"Cassie, sweetheart, we are not that lucky," he told her as she answered the phone.

"Hello?" She asked as she tried to catch her breath. He grinned proudly at how flushed she was. He'd actually kissed her, and she'd kissed him back. "The bulb was in your lab the whole time?" She asked with as she looked at Jake and rolled her eyes. "So, Ezekiel didn't take it?" She switched the phone to speaker before Jenkins started to answer.

"No, he _did_. He just hid it in my lab and then ran off to hide himself in the Library," Jenkins said with a frustrated sigh. "The door is repaired now and awaiting your return trip. It should be located in the alley where you were dropped off yesterday. Did you manage to get any leads on the case?"

Jake smirked at her and then answered. "Even better, we solved it."

"We'll be bringing an artifact back with us that should probably stored somewhere deep and dark in the Library," Cassandra warned him. "Unless you'd like a free trip to Hades, that is."

"A what?" Jenkins asked.

"Nevermind," Cassie said with a shake of her head. "We'll see you in a few minutes, Mr. Jenkins."

They disconnected the call and then exchanged awkward glances.

"So, I guess we should go back, right?" Cassie asked him hesitantly.

Jake didn't really want to go back. Not at this particular moment. But what reason did they have to stay? His eyes landed on the open bathroom door and his jeans hanging on the shower curtain rod. He grinned and then turned to face her. "No, we can't. Not yet."

She quirked a brow at him. "And why not?"

"My jeans are still drying," he told her as he smirked. "I can't go back in boxers can I?"

"You could but I'd imagine you'd get some strange looks," she said with a chuckle.

"Good, then I guess we'll have to stay here. Alone. Together," Jake said as he snaked an arm back around her waist.

She smiled coyly at him and wrapped her arms around his neck. "Well, I guess so."

"Now, where were we?" He asked as he flashed her half of a grin.

"About," she started as she brought hand up to her collar-bone and pointed to the last spot he'd kissed. " _Here._ If I'm not mistaken, and I'm not. Eidetic memory and all," she said with a playfully proud smirk.

He laughed as he pulled her in for another kiss. As much as he'd hate to do it, he might have to thank Ezekiel for breaking the door. Being stranded with Cassandra had turned out better than he'd ever hoped it would.


End file.
